The Flaky Biscuit PodcastHost Bryan Ford is joined by actor and comedian Jason Biggs. With an extensive acting career that began at the age of five, Jason is best known for playing Jim Levenstein in the American Pie comedy film series, Leonardo in the first two seasons of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Larry Bloom in the Netflix original series Orange Is the New Black. He also starred in Boys and Girls, Loser, Saving Silverman, Anything Else, Jersey Girl, Eight Below, Over Her Dead Body, and My Best Friend's Girl. For this episode, Jason asked Bryan to make him a classic Italian-American dish that he eats every holiday season, stromboli.
Watch Bryan make his version and Subscribe: Youtube
Recipe from today's episode can be found at Shondaland.com
Join The Flaky Biscuit Community: Discord
Jason Biggs IG: @biggsjason
Bryan Ford IG: @artisanbryan
Don’t forget to check out your local food bank, volunteer or donate at feedingamerica.org.
Flaky Biscuit is a production of Shondaland Audio in partnership with iHeartRadio. Welcome to Flaky Biscuit, where each episode we're cooking up delicious morsels of nostalgia. We talk about these meals and recipes that have comforted and guided our guest to success. Each episode, I'm creating a recipe from scratch and literally hand delivering it to my guest. All right, these recipes. I hope y'all are making it at home. Go to Shawnaland dot com. I'm Brian Ford. I write cookbooks, I make TV shows, but most importantly, I like to cook and bake for people. And I'm staring into someone's dreamy eyes in my kitchen right now. Today. It's a guest who is quite familiar with food. An actor, comedian, so many different things, best known for playing Jim Levenstein in the American pie comedy film series, Leonardo in the first two seasons of Teenage Mutant Into Turtles, and Larry Bloom in the Netflix original series Orange Is New Black. Some new movie that just came out on Netflix right The Christmas Christmas movie.
Yeah, Christmas movie, Best Christmas Ever, Best Christmas Ever.
It is my new friend who I just did a special project with and is now hanging out with me coming to my pop ups. Jason Biggs? What's up, dude? How are they?
I'm great, man, I'm happy, super happy to be here with my new friend, new friends Bryan and Bridget I just made the br connection. By the way, the bris Have you talked about the special project we did yet? Are you dropping what it is yet? I haven't really talked about it either.
I don't know it is a baking project. But how are you? In general? Man? You came to my pop up? That was very special.
That was awesome, you know when we were working together, of course, or even before. I mean, when I heard who else was going to be involved in the show, was like, Okay, this is gonna be cool. He's he seems like a cool dude to Hay with which you were, and seems like a really special baker. And I can't wait to try his stuff. And you know, we did a baking show and we tried lots of baked goods, and to hear you talking about those baked goods but having not yet tried your baked goods, I was super excited to come back and hit your pop up. I hit it that first weekend. Yeah, my kids and I and my wife Jenny, we were out and about. It was awesome. I'll be perfectly honest. I'm still I'm still working out all the names because obviously they have very specific names. I'm still calling them like, you know, the doughnut thing, which is the guava cream stuffed concha. There you go, Yeah, the chocolate chocolate conchu and the guava cuncha. Oh my god, it was so good.
Anyway, I'm really listen, man. That's how I know you real man, because you pulled up brought the fam. You know what I'm saying, Cops, Yeah, that was really special. So it's been nice to double park for you and everything. Absolutely, and now you're in the Queen's basement.
That's love, all right.
So so I was running late doing deliveries and I gotta prep this meal. We're gonna do a little change up here. I'm going to prepare this meal in front of Jason right now. But why don't you tell the listeners what your most nostalgic meal is that you're having me prepare. I will.
So it is Stromboli Italian Stromboli and actually to be perfectly honest, I don't know if it traces back to Italy or if it's more of an Italian American thing, But I grew up in an Italian American household, and my mother would make this stromboli and she would make it sometimes randomly throughout the year, but always always around Christmas time, so either for Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, sometimes both. Sometimes she would do it for Thanksgiving. She actually was randomly right before you asked me to do this and to come up with the food. She was telling me that she made it for the first time in a little while for my niece, her granddaughter, who's like obsessed with it. Damn yeah, yeah, my mom make it. And so basically it's baked rolled dough, stuffed with rolled with Italian meats and cheeses. Right, so it's like salami, pepperoni ham Maybe I'm not quite sure. I mean you could obviously take some liberties there and whatever, and then Italian cheeses provolone and maybe more privolone. And it was always served as like the appetizer, or if it was out, if there were some antipasta on the table, you know, there'd be like you know, some olives and some rolled cold cuts and some whatever anchovies what all this stuff, and then my mother's sliced romboli, you know, coming right right out of the oven.
And had a little sausa dip in and.
Then a sausagh you do the marinera sauce to dip whatever.
It's all right, I'm glad that you described it that way, in a way that doesn't compromise what I'm gonna do.
Okay. The thing I will say about it too, is like I love food since I moved away from home. I moved out when I was nineteen and then started traveling more and being exposed to more cultures and cuisines from around the world, and my palette expanded, my budget increased, et cetera. Right, Yeah, and so all that excites me. That kind of food, that's you know, people are doing crazy stuff with. But I grew up in a house where there was simple food, simple you know, Italian food, and not even every day. I mean we had some days we were rocking TV dinners and whatever. It was a you know cereal for dinner. Yeah, hungry man, dude, the little cranberry thing in the middle.
That's why my blood pressure probably increased because all the hungry Man's I've eaten.
That's hilarious. That's probably why I'm on a statin. Yeah, but I still love and appreciate my mom would make, you know, some beans, soups and stuff or whatever, you know, like Italian peasant food, poor man's dinner. I love it. And Stromboli was just one of these for me. It just felt very blue collar North Jersey Italian American things that my mom would make. We loved it so much it became like a holiday thing. But it's just real simple, yeah, and I love it. I love it. It brings me back. I love it, man.
I appreciate you sharing that. And we're gonna dive deep. I'm gonna have to get this in the oven. I'll give you a little a rundown of what's going down. So I looked up Stromboli. You know, I never made stromboli before. I made pizzas ficaciaus. I'm actually quite good at making that. And the dough looks similar to pizza dough.
It looked like a little.
Enrichment with olive oil, a little salt, hydrated nicely because it's got to stay light. You know, you don't want it to be too dense. And so, you know, I went through my morning today. I got to the bakery at five. Everything seemed normal, and then the bakers were like, yo, the cookies are fucked and we need to make a new batch a dough. And I was like, okay, that's gonna set my day back significantly. I delivered the cookies too late that and then in my head, I'm like, damn, I didn't have a chance to strombolie. Well, you know, but you're lucking out because I had extra, better quality dough than I could have made on the same day. I have some nicely fermented it's a hybrid between what you might know as a facasha and a baguette. It's for these beatout thests, these baguettes that I served to a wine bar. And the dough's got a little bit of enrichment to it. It's nicely hydrated and it's been resting in the fridge all night. So I grabbed it out the walk in and I've got it with me.
What so were you planning on using I was.
Going to make a same day dough with some pre ferment, some fresh yeast, some olive oil, a little sugar. You know, I was basically going to make this type of dough but on the same day, and you know, because like my brain is like not that organized, I was like, wait, I have I have some like better dough. Yep. So I snacked that and then I was like, okay, I gotta get the meat, the cold cuts. I'm not about to go to you know, the grocery store, to Arthur as shit. I mean, I wish I had that kind of time, Okay, okay, okay, But I went to something similar. I went to David Toni's Deli. I love it out here on thirtieth as it's the second time of you Dave in Tony's man homiees in there. It feels like you walk in and you're in Italy because nobody speaking English. Day plande Italiano. They're going in. Old man behind the counter, He's like, oh, what do you want? And like so I pulled up and I told the dude, I need to make sure on bowli and he said, I know exactly what you need stock man, yo. So he gave me i' gonna show you right now.
Yeah, what do they give you?
All? Right? So, first of all, for your dipping sauce imported San Martano, San Marzano. We're gonna crush these up, get some salt in them, dope, and for our for our meat selection here all right, so we've got by the way, this is the wax paper. This is what you're supposed to be.
This is great. I'm psyched on this.
Some excellent Italian mozzarella. Okay, that's what pounded it? Right?
Getting a piece of that? Or no, are you handed me that ship?
Have a little slice or what what you.
Have me?
Yeah, I'm gonna have a slice, baby on a slice. Yeah, there you go. Mmmm, that's nice. That's gonna melt really nicely. Then I've got two types of cop cola, got a google. One is spicy, one is not spicy. So in my head I'm like, I don't know if you like spicy or not. So I got both. So I'm gonna just like kind of layer them, and then of course some pet on some nice freshly slice. Look at that. Look at the color on that, dude. Yeah, look dig in well I told you earlier.
I said part of it is the antipasta laid out. It's already cold.
Is your coca? Here we go? So we already hitting the nostalgia because I'm laying.
It out of spicy.
That's good, just got a kick.
I like it.
Now for the dough, so we're gonna assemble this and we're gonna pop it in the oven. I'm trying to make this look nice. You know what I'm saying for my viewers. All right, look at this dough. Oh what now? Smell it? Oh, come and smell this dough. What I'm gonna do? I never made stromboli before, all right, so unde dude is gorgeous. This dough is kind of wicked. It's gotta be kind of long so we can slice it. So I'm gonna want to roll it this way, get it kind of long, and I'm gonna start with the cheese and I'm gonna go heavy on this ship. I'm not gonna play around. M h. I have a little semolina on the dough. So the dough is funky. It's a twenty four to forty eight hour forer men. All right, I'm gonna do do a layer. Oh my goodness, so many options here. So I'm gonna start with a spicy so as you're as you're watching me, right now, what can you tell me about my approach, Like, how did your mom do it? Because I'm just sitting here just layering things up.
I mean, that's basically what she would do. She did the pizza dough, rolled it out, started stuffing the hell out of it, mm hmm, and then uh, rolled it up and baked.
Do you think I'm over stuffing it right now because I'm I'm just kind of going in.
Based on the I think her dough is usually a little thinner. No no, no, no, no, no, no, no no, this is gonna be dope, dude. So I think because yours seemingly is gonna be a little thicker, you have more room to get more meats and cheese in there. That's right, that's what's gonna be.
So now comes the roll up. So I've got two layers of cheese, two layers of meat.
I was gonna say, maybe another layer cheese. And I'll tell you why, just because part of the appeal of the stromboli is when you cut it and then bite into it, that ooz, that ooze, that ooze is big.
So we got another layer of cheese here, Just put some more meat on it too. I mean, like I'll just put like a single, just like a single pepperoni line. I'm gonna brush this with some melted butter. So I'm gonna get up real quick, get some parchment. Oh yeah, we got Stromboli facts Strom.
In Philadelphia.
There you go.
Wait, well, I knew it wasn't going to go trace back to Italy. There's so many Italian foods that, like I grew up with in Jersey that you do a little research, you go, oh, wait, that's not even it doesn't even come from Italy.
And we're gonna go into the oven. Tell me about the first time you had your mom's trumboli.
Hmmm. It was something that in my memory doesn't go back to early childhood. It was more of a I want to say, I was maybe ten or something like. It's not something that I remember in my life at all times, because I remember my mom trying it for the first time, discovering it, and I don't know if she what prompted her, but it sort of usurped the pizza in terms of what I have two sisters in terms of what we and my dad in terms of what we would wanted and asked for the most. Because you know, the other thing is you slice it up, and then family of five. That thing's like gone. She was put in two three at a time. Four. Maybe it's hard to pinpoint the first time, but it was an immediate love affair, and we immediately started requesting it. Interestingly, the other thing that she made that we really liked more in your world, I suppose, was an apple crisp. Oh yeah, like a fritter, like a cobbler, kind of a yeah, except for the one year she was on a bit of a health kick, so instead of sugar she tried splendor. It was a no bueno. We still give her shit about it.
The splendid crisp.
The splendid chris Ma, what are you doing?
How many times did she do this? Just once or multiple times?
I think once? But we we came down hard and we were bummed.
We were really bummed cutting up little bags of splenda?
Can you imagine?
No, I've never like even con considered, oh could you?
By the way, how do you even measure it out? Because splenda has a totally different like you can't measure the same amount of splenda as sugar, right, And there's no recipe of apple crisp that calls for splendor. Not yet, dude, it was it was not edible.
I'm gonna make sure I make you a splendor Crisp one day. The thing is, I'm not going to tell you I put splendor in it right away. Dude.
That's a taste I will never It's burned into my memory. Dude.
We should start an opposite podcast of like things you don't want to eat?
Yes, yes, yes, foods you need to avoid at all costs.
Memories. We didn't want to bring back up, but we brought it.
Back Welcome to the Food Trauma Hour with Brian and Bridget So. Yeah, I remember it being heavy in the rotation, especially you know, middle school and high school when the.
Next time you're going to see your mom's savor us slice of this strum bowl.
We should. Actually, I'd be psyched.
If let's see how it comes out that my dad, my dad tell me.
If my dad tries it too, like, I could see him saying something like, oh, Ange, that's my mom's name. Why don't you make it like this, and then he's like kicked out of the house.
Bro.
That'd be awesome to see it. It'd be great if you break up my parents.
Oh wow, Yeah, that's the whole time.
You imagine that'll come back. That'd be a great follow up episode. Do you guys remember the episode where Jason Bix came on and we mates from Bolie for him funny story.
Then we'll talk about your favorite nostalgic moments of when your parents were together. Now that I now that I left them apart, it would be curious to see your dad try it though, if it was.
Like, dude, it's going to be sick. I can tell you already. Also, because you know what the capa cola. It's so hard for me not to say gabba gool when I have my dad, when I have my dad in my mind, because that's literally like he is Soprano's like every there is mouturel gabba ghul, pepperona. Like my dad's like, what is kalama?
Go Dad?
It's at right, Okay, I understand, but it's actually the word is calamari. It's like, nah, it's come on God, It's like the C is a GM, like capa cola is gabba ghoul. Makes no sense.
Well, it's an Italian American thing, right, Yeah, you know I'm Hispanic American, an American, So there's like the kind of spanglish thing that we do, which is like, yeah, it's gonna be different than a Hispanic from the main land. So I think over time, you.
Take the man out of Jersey, but you can't take the jersey out of the man. And I'm sort of like that, except I'm now pronouncing things, you know, the way they're spelled. We would have so Sunday and Sunday, by the way, Sunday dinner and an Italian American household is you know, two o'clock. You know that's literally we'd go to my grandmother sometime, my Italian grandmother who lived a couple towns over, and she would make a big thing of Gavatelly Govit dell or Cavatelly. That was her special tape. So yeah, remember a lot of like Sunday dinners during the week. It was kind of ad hoc. One of the my dad calls it poor man's dinner is potatoes, hot dogs and scrambled egg one pan, one pot salt pepper ketchup. That was dinner speak, salt salt pepper ketch SPK.
Yeah. I learned that from her. All right, So I'm gonna I'm gonna do a lit some for my listeners here, which is kind of break down some of the fundamentals of the dish itself. So the dough, it's hydrated nicely, probably about eighty percent water. The technical part here, because my eggs were frozen in the back of my fridge because it's set at a cold temperature. I was not able to egg wash the Stromboli, which I think would have given it more of the color that we'd be looking for, that kind of dark golden brown. I put melted butter on it and analyzing it, it's not taking on much color. That upsets me, you know. I wanted to get that nice bold color before we cut into it. So the specifics of the dough recipe you can find on shannaland dot com origins Strombolis from Philly, from Philadelphia, and it's different from a calzone or calzone, which is from Italy, all right, so don't get it twisted. And I think calzonas calzones have sauce in them.
Yeah, they saw right. And it's also almost like a pocket.
Correct right from OLLI uses a rectangular dough, whereas a calzone's a rounded dough that's folded in half. Apparently there's a third difference between them, and which is the filling. The classic strong bully fillings we have here are different hams, meats, cheeses, forkel zones. You want to get the sauce, you want to get fresh mozzarella could be in there, some sausage and stuff like that, and some green some green bell peppers.
Ricotta.
Is this Italian one on one with Jason Biggs. Oh wow, it's safty color. Okay, it's it's actually ready. My first ever strong Bully has come out of the oven. I have a feeling this dough might be able to crispy because it's that highly hydrated dough. But we'll see. I'm gonna let it cool for two seconds. So I have a sauce. I typically when I make sauces, I'll take some nice whole peeled tomatoes, crush them and add salt. That's literally all I do, and a little I put a little regano in here. But I don't cook my sauce. I don't do any that kind of thing. I know cats that cook their sauce. I know cats that don't. I found that the fresh even though they can, but like if they're a good quality, that you can get that in so so yeah, so I got some sauce to bring out that flavor, and the Bridget was kind enough to present our little antipasty situation. We got some Arti chokes and oil, some tomato. I made a pesto the other day with the last basil harvest from our garden because it's starting to get cold. This is a walnut pesto with some paramagano roggiano olive oil. Obviously it's a little thick, and you know, garlic salt, and of course our meats and cheese is still on the table because you already know we're dogs, and we got the dog in as about a heat and then it wouldn't be complete without Bridget's heirloom familial Italian pasta plates, garlic, sweet basil tomato. Don't go anywhere. We'll be right back after this. Hey Brian again, let's get back into it. I love it, so so here's what's going to happen. It's probably pretty hot, but I think you can handle it, and I want you to tell me what you're tasting smelling. First of all, tell me about what you see right away.
It's taken me back. This is familiar this looks bro it looks amazing. One of my favorite things that happens with the stromboli after it's bit in the oven is you'll get little pockets of exposure. Right the doe will break in different points. Sometimes it's you just never know where, but that's a good sign. You get a little of the meat and cheese poking its head out there.
Uh huh, extra stuffed.
I'll probably request although this is dude, this is soft.
Oh my god, it feels good. Dude, this is softer here, this is soft here in the middle. Yeah, it must crispyer here on the edge.
I might request something a little further away from the edge, just to get a little My dad, for example, we all had different My dad loves the heel, although of course inevitably a little less meat and cheese there, just the way it bakes, the way you fold it. Look at that, that's just all bread. Yeah right here, that's your move right now, boom.
You know you guys understand, give me that getting a sauce a little bread, double dip, double dip, absolutely triple dip. So my theory is that the edge is cooked. Now I'm a little nervous about the middle being gummy because it's so stuffed. But at this point, man, we just gonna have it, so I'm gonna cut into it. Oh yeah, dude, Oh yeah, that looks good.
That looks awesome. The dripping, the oil from the pepperoni, from all the meats, the drippage that's happening, dude.
The floor is yours, my friend.
I'm not gonna dip yet, just so you know, I'm gonna go.
Just you got a nice cheese ooz.
Got a nice cheese ooz and a pepperoni ooze, which I love.
Beautiful.
The cheese is gonna happen right now when I fight into it and pull out and let's do it. Don't don't, don't.
Mmmmm hmm.
There it is all right. I'm gonna start dipping.
Start dipping. Wow, my body is like, where have you been? Bro?
You're gonna make this again?
Are you go? Oh my god?
I've never had with pesto before. H That pesto is awesome, thank you.
So bear with me. I've been onder the diet for ten days, guys, I have I haven't had nothing like this. I'm kind of feeling it a little bit. Oh my goodness. Uh sorry, I'm in a state of ecstasy here.
I like the real fough part of the middle.
So Jason's going in right now. So what are you tasting? Give us some of the details.
Taste this is This is it? Bro, There's nothing to say except this is it. I mean, this dough might be it is a step above my moms. My mom's is more simple, but still like, this is it is what I remember. The pesto is a really I'm gonna I'm gonna talk to my mom about this. Yeah, I'm gona. Yeah, I'm gonna try to introduce pesto this Christmas.
So we just want to know. Did I bring you back? Bro?
I'm back. I'm there right now, I'm there right now.
I love it.
I love it.
I'm very happy that you're back because you're gonna have to take this with you, because if you don't take it with you, I'm going to regain all the weight. I just think I lost, dude. I think I have to go, and I'm gonna go in for a little slipper. Yeah.
No, it's work, Yeah, it's work. This is one of those foundational, the standard Italian American New Jersey things. I was always out of our my family, the one with the more adventurous palette, which is to say, I wanted the linguini with clams when I was, you know, eight years old, right. But like I said earlier, once I once I moved out, and once I started traveling, and once I got more exposed, once I had a bigger budget that I can play with and sort of try different things. Fine dining Michelin stars World's fifty Best expensive tasting menu Oma Casse awesome. But at the end of the day, authentic food, regional cuisine simple. This is my heart. You know, this is like and all cultures, you know, obviously, this is me. This is Italian, American, this is what I connect you from my past. But I'll go on these food trips I think I was telling you about them. I'll go on these crazy food trips with my best friend, and it's great and we're lucky that we can do it, that we can afford to do it, and that I'm lucky I have a friend who appreciates it and can also afford to do it. But the highlight of those trips always ends up being, you know, we go to Barcelona and we're eating at tickets and Enigma and dysrutar, which is going to be number one in the world soon. And they're all great, But that little taps place that we went to in the back alley that someone told us about on an airplane over right, that's the fucking spot.
That's the jam. That's the spot. That's the jam. And then I feel like that that right there. It takes obviously getting out there in the world and really just living it. Like there's no list that can give you the experience of that. That's just stuff you stumble into that simplicity, things that make you feel comforted, things that are delicious, things that are friendly, are on the wallet, yep, but still use high quality ingredients. You know. I want to talk a little bit about how, you know, you've had quite the career. You've been doing what you do for a long time. How did this food kind of fuel you in that direction? If it did, you know, when did you start acting? As I was five, you were five years old when you started performing for people at a high level, which is just I don't think most people can. You know. It's almost like athletes, like soccer players that start when they're like four, right, It's like that expectation yeah, do you turn to stuff like this in moments where you are like, oh, man, like I need a break, I need to go eat.
I'll tell you what if for me one of the reasons I think I am the kind of person I am today, which is to say, someone who appreciates everything that I have, understands the peaks and valleys of this industry, respects my coworkers, and just loves being on a set and pinches himself. I pinch myself every time, like, this is my job? How cool is this? This is the coolest job. I'm so lucky.
Did you pinch yourself when you met me? Brian?
Right? There are exceptions, obviously there are exceptions. But I credit my family, my upbringing, and my connection to my home and my community and my family and meals like this with keeping me grounded and balanced, because again, five years old, I'm starting working professionally in New York City. You know, if there's any sort of theme to my life looking back, it is the sort of two worlds that I straddle and have my whole life, right, that sort of small town Italian, blue collar, working class New Jersey world where I would eat meals like Stromboli and pasta, an iceberg lettuce salad.
Oh yeah, you know, yeahs by the.
Way, best the best, and then this other world that you could see and I would go into, as you know, and I would act professionally and work with mostly adults and people who were on different paths and living different life experiences. And it was very adult and different. And the reason I think I never got swept up in that and knock on woods so far am not a casualty of coming up in the industry that way, is because of my connection to my home. You know. My mom didn't up and move with me to Los Angeles to try to, like, you know, do that, which a lot of the other New York actor kids did, right their families would just pull up and be like, okay, and do it all for this kid, and like, let's see, we're gonna go he's gonna be famous, and let's go do it. And that was never on the table, and they gave up a lot for me. Again, I was mentioned earlier, my mom started working nights just in case I had an audition or a job that she would take me to after school. You could drive me into the city, but that you know, it was just hey, I'll take you into the city. We'll travel with you if you get a job. But this is our life, this is what we can afford. This is home. Even if I would go to la for three months to do a TV series, we came back.
Yeah.
I credit them and that childhood with making me the way I am now as an adult actor who has attained quite a bit of success.
Yeah. Yeah, and I can feel that. Like, honestly, when I met you, I was like, yeah, I mean, I have no clue that this du this dude's don't though when after I met you, Oh, it's real. Reality is something that you can sense within people. It's interesting because you know, when you have this idea of some and you meet them in person, you instantly can tell if they're just like regular And I tell you what, they all have been most people that we've kind of met. But you were. You just a real cat. You're a New York type cat. I really appreciate that you hold your family so dearly in your heart, because that's like everything for me, Like family is everything to me. Having that cultural background from a different country, like having the cuisine element that I strive for, like my mom cooking special dishes, from Honduras or something like the fact that you also are going through the same thing. It's just really nice to kind of be around. It's also real from your parents. Man, it's just like yo, like, sure, you might make a big time, but this is where we at. Man, we out here in New Jersey, bro, Like, this is where we live and this is what it is. And I think that probably has kept you quite humble. I don't know if humble as were no.
Humble is if I can humbly say that, I think I am pretty humble. I mean, I you know, I've got an ego. I've got, but I recognize it, and I recognize when it sometimes needs to be right, you know, and I have people around me that would check it.
So with your kids right now, they're not actors, are they? They?
Well, it's so funny you ask, because literally my oldest kid is going through a phase right now where he's wants to be an actor. He's seeing it. I also think, is it because you're an actor? Is yeah, Well it's so current. But I think a little bit of it has to do with he's now at an age where he's recognizing that people react to me and my and my fame right in a certain way. And he kind of likes it. You know, he's nine.
He's nine. Yeah, yeah, he'll.
Be ten soon. But it's about you know, it's tricky because of our jobs and what we do. When we put ourselves out there in the public forum and people recognize us, it's it's tricky. I'm learning. He's my first son, so I we have no idea how to do this or what we're doing. We're learning as.
We got making some strombolia.
I gotten to start making some making.
Yeah, that's a good idea. Like it's strumbling something you would buy.
I've run into it in some delis in Jersey. It's not a very commonplace, even in Italian delis. It's not very commonplace. But when I do see it, if I'm in the mood, I will I will grab it. And it's always good. I mean it's hard to honestly, bro, it's hard to like mess up meat.
Meat cheese and bread.
Take away from you, but meat, cheese and breads, right, like, come on, meat cheese and bread is the trifecta combo that some friends and my brother growing up, we had this moment and we were not high or anything like that.
But we were sitting on the couch in like late high school and we were just like philosophizing a little bit, and we started talking about bread, meat and cheese, and we were like, we were talking about how many different iconic foods. If you take it back to the basics, it's just bread, meat and cheese, tacos, burritos, like the burger, the bread meat and cheese, the hot dog, the bread meat and cheese. If you put chatter on your hot dog like a savage like me, sandwiches bred meat like. That's the thing about Italian food I love. I've been to Italy a couple of times. That's why I proposed to Bridge. You already know what it is. What I love about Italian food is when the quality ingredients hits you don't really need to do much to it. That's it. And that's why I was like, I'm not gonna go to the grocery store and get some prepackaged bores head or whatever. I'm gonna go find some Italian cast who's importing it, cutting it fresh. That's all you need. And you know, the nice does not gonna hurt you know what I'm saying. We'll be back after these messages from our sponsors back to the interview.
But I tell you what though, like for me, the most important thing for Jenny and Knife is to try our best to raise our kids. Use the word real, you know, as real kids who understand, you know, between obviously right and wrong, good and bad, but also sort of take what we do with a relative grain of salt. We don't want to tell him to not be proud. I mean they're proud of you know. When he hears that I'm on something or he sees me in something, he's definitely proud. But it's about trying to make sure that his desires around it and his happiness around it is not because we're famous and people validate us, right, because that validation is temporary and it's transactional. Not that it's not real, but it's not the kind of validation that I want my kids to be seeking. Oh you know what I mean.
So throughout your career, obviously did you have to think about that on your own? I mean, because like you, you're a famous person and your kids see that. Now, your parents were not famous people, so the way they dealt with your career was different than what you have to do right, it's different, exactly right, and you're having to live through both of them, right, exactly, So, like, what would you have done differently? I guess like, because you have so much information to give to your kids, how did you get through all this?
Not to sound repetitive, but obviously a lot of that goes back to my upbringing and where I was raised. I also think a lot of it really has to do with understanding the fickleness of my industry and knowing that even though I've achieved a certain level of success, there's still dark times. There's still hard times, and so it's recognizing that and being prepared for that as best you can, and having a certain confidence that when things are in a bit of a lull, whether it's personally professionally, it's understanding that there's a plan and being confident in your abilities that you will that it's all good. Like you've been doing this since you were five years old. You've gone stretches without work, You've gone stretches, you know where it's been hard, really hard. It's not all roses. Just keep grinding and be patient. Patients is obviously a huge part of it. You know, right now, my kids are only seeing the good stuff, and that's good. I don't want to show them like you know what it's like to not have a job for a year and a half, you know what I mean. Like right now, they're they're seeing, Oh, people come up to him and recognize him on the street. My dad, how cool? You know where he go? My kids go to school. A lot of it's happening at school, right And this is part of the reason why we moved out of Los Angeles and back here, is because you know, my sons are in school, not with a bunch of other famous actors kids and directors kids, and like in LA that's sort of the it's kind of a who's who, Like are you ever going to a birthday party this weekend at the Rock's daughter's house? You know, And it's like, oh, okay, but you know, so my kids will go to school and I think they're fellow classmates will be like, you know, oh, your dad, I saw your dad in a commercial thing and we were flipping or or my dad says, your dad is famous, you know, And I think they get a kick out of that. It gives them that momentary. You know, it's hardy and get in it's dope, right, But you know, I got my ten year old almost ten year old and now coming home being like, I want to act, I want to white. Can I be in movies too? And it's like, that's the other part of this in terms of how we're navigating it and trying to keep it real is I mean, I wouldn't say definitively, because Jenny writes a lot, and there's always a world in which Jenny writes something that maybe we would put the maybe we would consider allowing the kids to be in Maybe we could, But at the end of the day, we don't even show their faces on Instagram. We really try to protect them because they're going to be adults at some point and look back and it's not it's not their choice, Like we don't want them to look back on things and be like I wouldn't Why did you post that about me or say that? So it's tricky and obviously Jenny's a writer and she writes very truthfully and brutally honest, and so much of her material comes from home, and so it's hard for her. But she's also trying to navigate that in her own way when she writes about the kids. But in terms of getting them into acting. People ask me that all the time, and now my own nine year old son is asking me about that, and the answer is, no, we are not going to do it. I have this sort of weird relationship with me being a kid actor. At the end of the day, I'm super grateful for it because it made me an outlier. By the time I was nineteen and living in Los Angeles, I had already had this career. I had had tons of hours of practice. I had worked opposite actors who won Tony's for the role that I was acting opposite them with. I don't know if that's English at all, but you understand what I'm saying. So by the time American Pie came around, I was positioned well to do that. The thing about my kids is, my kids don't need to be kid actors in order to be positioned well. They're already going to have an advantage. Let's be perfectly honest, right, There is going to be a certain accessibility that I didn't have as a kid that I had to earn in a different way. Not saying that they're not going to earn their stake, but if they want to be actors, they can wait till they're eighteen or I mean, if they want to go to college, they're going to college.
Yeah, you going to college. Go to college. I mean, you heard it here, you're going to college.
But you know what I mean, they can make that choice as an adult for themselves. They can do whatever they want, you know, and we will support as best we can. But yeah, in terms of getting them into it, I mean, it was kind of an accident. And how I got into it. It wasn't like my mom was like, I want my kids to be famous. I mean, that was not the path we took. It was kind of accidental. My older sister, as one of her after school hobbies was in dance classes. She was really good. She ended up with another dance group that traveled around and performed and did well, and a lot of the other girls. Because of the proximity to the city, their mom started taking them into New York to get agents and managers and tried doing commercials and stuff. My sister wanted to do it, and my mom was like, all right, you know, it could be a way to save money for college, and so it happened with her. He got a manager, that manager a couple of years later, was like, Jason, would he be interesting because I could set him out. I bet I could get him auditions and stuff. And I was like, yeah, I want to do that, and so that's how it happened. And I just loved it and started working consistently enough where I was like, this is great. I feel comfortable here. It was very freeing for me. I really felt like I could you were liberated. I was like liberated. It was fun, and very early on I was. It kind of started skewing comedic, and so I enjoyed making people laugh and so I identified with that feeling very early on and enjoyed it. Loved it. In my mom's head the whole time was all right, college bunny. You know. The irony of course now is I've dropped out of two colleges and have twelve non transferable credits to my name, But.
Right twelve is more than no credit.
It's true. Yeah, I just my kid's situation is different, and we want to try to protect them, you know, empower them to make the choices. We're not going to make the choices for that, right, And I feel like when kids go into acting, it's the parents making the choice for them. To be right now, the kid can't do it himself. It does, yeah, you know, I mean there are more passive instances, you know, where a kid is super like. I just want to do this. I'm not going to begrudge all kid actors and their parents. I don't want to do that again. I was one, so but I just have a different take on it all.
I think. Yeah, it's a tricky balance. Man. You've got the experience, You've gone through it yourself. It's a different world today than it was back then, and you know, you make the best judgment. At the end of the day. It's all gonna be okay. It's going to know what I mean, You're all going to be able to do your great father. You're doing what you can for your kids and love them and bring them from bowling.
And bring them from making.
I'm gonna tell you what. I'm gonna tell you one thing, man, I'm gonna tell you one thing for real. You better start making shrom bowling.
I'm going to, I really am, I'm going to. Did you see my post the other day? I got some Barada and uh oonie.
Uh were you in your kitchen?
I was in my kitchen.
You were doing something.
I just had some pre made for Kacha Foraly and I had some Barda on it and some Oonie and sea salt and olive oil. It was great. But dude, if I had your facaca, which.
You can, private lessons start around two thousand dollars an hour. They don't, by the way, they don't. They're cheapest. Fuck man, the market's hard out there. Wow, Jason, it's been really exceptional to kind of hear you know. And I'm not sure how often you talk about how food you know enough? Man, Yeah, because like getting to know you, you talk about food a lot. That's what I was, Man. I really got to get Jason flakey biscuit because like food, and I do hope that you know you passed some of you your food traditions onto your kids, whether it's rekindling your your from Bulli Flame or or maybe it's you love the Omacasti store like whatever. Man, Like whatever it is, bring those Sunday dinners to your family and I'll love it. Take their mind off that acting. You know what I'm saying.
You can get him to be a chef, man, that'd be fun.
It might be a little brutal. Tell them not to be a baker at the hour. We love to close out our episodes with a little fun, flaky game. I got a few questions for you, Jason. Are you ready for the flaky game?
I am ready for the flaky game.
Bro. I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna throw you a softball. Here. The three toppings of the margarita pizza make up Italian flag colors. What are the they?
Hey, listen, obviously have the tomato sauces red, the basil is the green, and then the white is the cheese the muzzarel.
Wow, that was actually a very sophisticate you know what. You kept it classy. Yeah, you kept it really classy with that answer. I have a I have a question I want to ask you at the top of my head. So we're talking about iconic classic foods from the Northeast, specifically, you know, the New Jersey, New York area, which is the following is an iconic New York staple. And I'm asking you this because you're a dog like me, all right now, and let me get through the whole three trials.
I't you. You can't get through you.
Is it clean water hot dogs? Is it filthy water? Hot dogs or is it dirty water hot dogs?
It's dirty water dog dogs.
Come on, we got one more for you. Is a deep fried what is it? Oh? Do it? Well?
Was it like a deep fried doughnut? Basically it's like a.
A which is basically a doughnut, Yeah, which is dough ball.
But then the best for me, the best, like at Sanjranaro's, is you go to the Zeppelin stand and you have the dough you drop them in a brown paper bag and then you do the jerk them off. You do the powdered sugar into the bag, and then you kind of close the bag up and you shake the bag up and then you get all that powdered sugar on the fresh greasy man and then and then the bag starts getting the grease stains on the bottom of it.
Anyway, I love that sounds like Bennet's Yeah, shaking up Italian Italian benees. It's almost like with bread, meat and cheese. There's also this other sector of like yes, it's like bro It's it's like people from different cultures talk about something. You're like, oh, that's like that, that's like exactly, yeah, it's like yeah, like that you're.
Describing this, but it's like called something different because you're somewhere.
Somewhere else, Like Indian cast will be like, man, that's like ROTI and I'm like.
It is, yeah, but but it's.
Like that, you know, bread, meat and cheese. Guys, that's it, Jason Bigs. We want to highlight today the Community Food Bank of New Jersey. Right, let's talk a little bit about that, and let's let our listeners know how they can help.
I mean, for me, obviously I'm from New Jersey, so that's a good one. But basically just you know, any any of your local food banks. I know you talk about it a lot, Brian. I think it's a great place to put your time and money if you can, because it it assists people who are you know, have some food and securities and needs. And so for me, it's a Community Food Bank of New Jersey.
If y'all are out there out here in this area, get out there and volunteer. You might catch me and Jason out there handing out some Stromboli's right.
We probably should act if we don't eat them first.
If we don't if we managed to not eat them first, we might need to pull up and hand some of those out with the holidays coming up, making sure people have some full bellies out there, man, So go out there, donate, volunteer and mister Jason Biggs pulled up to Queen's today, pulled up to the Flaky Biscuit podcast.
This was awesome.
Thank you so much, min.
Thank you Brian, This is awesome, dude appreciated. Yep, thank you for having me.
Thank y'all so much for listening. Fam. You can find my recipe for the Stromboli on shanlan dot com. And y'all, I want to know how it goes. Please tag artist and Brian, tag Jason Biggs, post your photos, your videos, tell me how you did when you made a strombowlie. You can find your local food bank and volunteer or donate at Feedinamerica dot org. All the handles and links I've mentioned are in the show notes for this episode. Fam. If you like Flaky Biscuit, you already know what to do. Leave us a rating, review, share, subscribe. You already know we coming through with the best food podcast content out there, so you might as well let everybody else know that too. Flaky Biscuit is executive produced by Sandy Bailey, alex Alja, Lauren Homan, Tyler Klang, and Gabrielle Collins. Our creative producer is Bridget Kenna and our editor and producer is Nicholas Harder, with music by Crucial. Recipes from Flaky Biscuit can be found each week on shondaland dot Com. Subscribe to the Shondaland YouTube channel for more Flaky Biscuit content. Flaky Biscuit is a production of Shondaland Audio in partnership with iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from Shondaland Audio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
